How Do You Drive Education Forward?

Challenge Assumptions and Innovate

“We’re focused on building partnerships with K-12 schools and other community-based organizations and making commitments to work together in new and innovative ways. I believe in breaking down barriers and pushing back against the deficit-thinking that shapes much of the discussion around education, in challenging assumptions and working instead to leverage the strengths of children and families in urban communities. That’s how I drive education forward.”

Serve as an Advocate

“I spent five years as a molecular cell biologist at NIH before becoming a biology teacher at an independent high school serving mostly low-income students. I'm now the Dean of Academics-a new position where I advocate for student learning by training teachers to recognize hot spots and challenges and put supports in place to help students achieve. That's how I drive education forward."

Motivate and Support Others

“The people who come to the Master of Arts in Teaching program are often career changers. I’m the first voice, the first contact people have when they start thinking about becoming teachers. I can hear it in their voices, they are often just dipping their toe in the water. I know how important it is to embrace them and where they are in their decision making process, to help reach them and welcome them and help them understand that yes, they CAN do this. They can start this journey and make their dream reality. That’s how I drive education forward.”

Create New Programs

“I've been a high school social studies teacher in Baltimore City for almost 15 years. I had a wealth of subject matter expertise I wanted to share with my students, but most of them couldn't read well enough to connect with it. I took everything I learned in the reading specialist program at Loyola and created a new school-wide literacy program that evaluates strengths and weaknesses, establishes work groups, and evaluates portfolios for all students-and helps them believe that if they can read, they can be successful. That's how I drive education forward."

Become an Agent of Change

“As the mother of four African-American males, I was very concerned about the educational outcomes for African-American students going through traditional public schools. I feel that as we grow and continue our work year after year, eventually we will see the fruits of our labor as the children grow up and become the agents of change in society that we would like them to be. As we continue to lay the foundation of the Montessori approach to education and more and more children and families are exposed to it, communities will begin to change and then as the communities change, the nation will change. That’s how I drive education forward.”

Think Outside the Box

“I am an aspiring secondary/middle school math teacher in the MAT program at Loyola University Maryland. I have a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and, after tutoring for more than three years, I decided to become a teacher full time. My Loyola experience has inspired me to look into different areas of teaching—including special education. The experience that the MAT program provides allows me to think of new ways to make math more entertaining, motivating, and fun for students through incentives and technologies. I want to make sure students are successful at math. That’s how I drive education forward.”

Embrace Change

“K-12 education is changing so rapidly—concentrating on the status quo is not acceptable. What we bring to the table in every course is the idea of how educational leaders need to understand the psychology of change and how people react to it, to be able to anticipate the range of different emotions people experience when they are faced with change. I see what we do as combining the head and heart of leadership—with the heart being the need to understand who you are, what your values are, to use them as rocks, to not get bogged down with the day-to-day challenges. That’s how I drive education forward.”

Gaining Strategies to Apply Right Away

Alane Robinson started working with ESL students while she was teaching in New Mexico and became aware of the challenges they face. “Most of these kids have already been in school for a couple of years. They have the social language, but they’re still struggling with their academic language,” said Robinson. Now, as a fourth grade teacher at Edgewater Elementary, Robinson has students who speak Spanish and Chinese. She chose to enroll in Loyola’s TELL program because she knew how much time and attention Loyola faculty gave her as a student in the Reading Specialist program. And she is having a similar experience in the TELL program, while also learning concrete strategies she can apply immediately. “I can go back to my classroom and actually use the research we’ve been studying. That’s how I drive education forward.”

Teaching Means Always Learning

Because Ebony Allen works with adolescent learners and non-dominant populations, the fifth grade teacher at Fallstaff Elementary knew she wanted to enroll in the TELL program. “The thing about teaching is you always are learning. You have to continuously grow because education is moving so fast,” she says. Allen has found that the TELL program doesn’t just offer strategies, but the research behind them, so that she can understand why to implement them. She also feels the knowledge she’s gaining would help any teacher. “A lot of people think it’s just about speaking Spanish, but it’s really to help teach people of multiple languages and cultures. The demographics of the country are changing, and everybody needs to feel that they have access to education. I need to be culturally aware of different modes of communication, different language. That’s how I drive education forward.”